Winners of five straight and eight of their last nine, and leaders in the Ohio Athletic Conference standings, the John Carroll Blue Streaks came into the matchup against Baldwin Wallace looking to keep the momentum going.

For 38 minutes, it looked possible.

But a tough final 103 seconds put an end to a good run, as John Carroll lost its first OAC contest since the December 1 - opening weekend - by a 68-59 score in Berea Wednesday evening.

On the down side, it was the Yellow Jackets' eighth consecutive victory against the Blue Streaks dating back to the semifinals of the 2015 OAC Tournament.

On the good side, John Carroll still remains in sole possession of first place, finishing the first half of the schedule with a 7-2 record

The deciding factor in the matchup proved to be second chance opportunities as the Yellow Jackets grabbed 18 offensive rebounds and converted them into 14 second chance points compared to the Blue Streaks 11 offensive rebounds which they converted into only two second chance points.

John Carroll (11-5, 7-2 OAC) was paced by guard Dani Carlson, who scored 14 points off the bench while shooting 3-4 from behind the arc.  The other double digit scorers for John Carroll were Nicole Heffington with 12 points and Kahrin Spear with 11 points.  

The Yellow Jackets (13-3, 6-3 OAC) were led by Lilly Edwards, who scored 16 points in the contest, while guards Kasey Hughes and Kara Marshall each added 13 points.

The first quarter would open up as a series of runs between the teams as Baldwin Wallace started the game on a 6-0 run.  John Carroll, however, would lock the Yellow Jackets down for nearly the remainder of the quarter as they went on a 14-0 run during the middle of the first quarter. Spear lead the way with eight points in the first.  However, a five-point run by the Yellow Jackets to end the quarter made it a 14-11 game.

The second quarter followed the same pattern as the first as Baldwin Wallace evened the score with a 4-0 run. That burst was halted on a fast break layup by Spear that started with a steal by Heffington.  Both teams then proceeded to trade buckets for the remainder of the quarter, with the only outlier a 6-0 run by the Blue Streaks in the middle of the period. That 6-0 run was enough a difference maker to give JCU a 31-26 advantage on the scoreboard heading into the locker room.

Spear and Shmoo Pryor headed the Blue Streaks scoring effort with ten and seven at the half, respectively.

Coming off her first collegiate triple double, Olivia Nagy continued her strong play in the interior as she collected 5 rebounds and two blocks in the first half

 John Carroll also proved to be advantageous on offense as they converted eight points from Baldwin Wallace's turnovers and gained a 7-2 advantage in the fast break.

In the third quarter, Baldwin Wallace was finally able to flip the script as they started the half on a 14-4 run to take a 40-35 lead. Compounding the run was that John Carroll got into early foul trouble and allowed plenty of second chance opportunities in the opening five minutes.  The rest of the quarter proved to be a back and forth affair but Baldwin Wallace kept the advantage as they were able to convert more of their free throw opportunities than the Blue Streaks.

John Carroll, looking to regain the lead, went on an 11-5 run in the fourth quarter as Carlson hit two three pointers and Nicole Heffington added five points (including a three pointer of her own) as Baldwin Wallace's lead was cut down to one.  

Two free throws from Nicole Heffington gave the Blue Streaks a one point lead, 57-56, with 5:06 to play.

Over the next several minutes, both teams struggled to score. The Yellow Jackets had back-to-back lay-ups by Marshall and Hughes to push the lead back in their favor at 60-57, but Sarah Sprecher came up big with a steal and lay-up of her own to make the score 60-59 with 1:43 to play in regulation.

John Carroll had been a fourth quarter team throughout its seven-game league winning streak, but that would not be the case tonight. Five missed shots, three fouls and a turnover were big reasons why Baldwin Wallace ended the game by scoring the final eight points.

Neither team had a stellar shooting night. JCU finished the game shooting only 34.5% from the field, compared to Baldwin Wallace who scored 35.9%.  Where Baldwin Wallace had the big advantage was in free throw shooting, as the Yellow Jackets 75% of their attempts (18-24) while John Carroll was 57 percent (12-21) from the charity stripe.

John Carroll will look to rebound as they return to the DeCarlo Varsity Center on January 18 to face the Muskingum Fighting Muskies (1-15, 0-9 OAC) at 7:00 p.m.